You’d have to be a digital recluse to not have heard the ongoing whimpering from iPhone owners over the possibility that Apple’s going to remove the headphone jack for its upcoming iPhone 7 models. It’s my unenviable job here to tell you to grow, move on and look to the future.
You’re not reading this on paper, papyrus, or an etched slab of stone. You didn’t walk the 20 miles to work this morning, and nor did you ride a horse.
You’re perfectly happy for all your face-to-face human interactions to be replaced by the reflected glow of a screen on someone’s face; for conversations to be usurped by IMs and SMS, and for language to eventually give way to emoji.
All of that is fine, but just don’t take your precious headphone jack, right? The march of technology is allowed everywhere else, just not if it means your existing gear won’t work or a little bit of an awkward switch-over phase?
I do get it, it is annoying – and I’ll level too, I’ve never bought an iPhone, never liked the attitude of the company towards its users, never appreciated the ‘we’re restricting everything for your own good’ approach of its OS. Nonetheless, I think Apple’s entirely correct to lose the headphone socket if it thinks that’s the future. Or even if it just wants to cynically sell a bunch of new headphones or adaptors.
It has that right, and sadly, iPhone owners, you seem to be confusing the company’s right to ensure that technology marches forward (and revenues upward) with your ‘right’ to get what you want on an iPhone. That’s one only provided by the market; if you want a phone with a headphone socket, look elsewhere. If you want an iPhone, you’re not going to have a lot of choice in it.
The real point though, for me, is that anyone moaning will just be able to use an adaptor if they insist on continuing to live in the past.
It won’t be expensive, and nor is making the jump to wireless over-head cans. Sure, if you want truly wireless in-ear buds, that’s going to set you back some more cash. But did I mention you can just use a connector anyway? How exactly is plugging in a connector different to plugging in your headphones? How is it ‘more hassle’? How are you more likely to lose it than headphones if you’re just leaving it plugged in? Exactly what are the benefits of the future that keeping the headphone socket around will bring?
Yeah, exactly.
In a fitting twist of irony, and perhaps why I hold these opinions, I’ve been using wireless Bluetooth headphones with smartphones for the last two years, so have no need for the redundant headphone socket offered on every phone I’ve used.
It’s time to say goodbye to the headphone socket, and that’s OK.
